Resolution on the Repression of the Right to Protest in the Netherlands

ESU is deeply concerned about the ongoing endangerment of the right to protest in the Netherlands, especially regarding protests on campus. In the Netherlands, student protests are met with alarming responses, ranging from reluctance to facilitate expressions of free speech to harsh repressions, including excessive police violence.

Recently, there have been many alarming occurrences during student protests in the Netherlands. These include students sustaining serious and lasting injuries from police and police dogs on campus during protests; students being surveilled without their knowledge by campus security; and higher education administrators reporting students and staff members participating in protests to the police.

Recently, a motion passed in the Dutch parliament stating that police should be able to share personal information and details of students involved in ‘disturbances’ outside of the higher education context, so that measures can be taken against them. This was coupled with a recommendation, accepted by Minister of Education Rianne Letschert, to increase surveillance of students participating in protests on campus. Both represent a worrying trend of discouraging and sanctioning student protest, operating under the assumption that the student movement poses a threat to order and safety on campus. Rooted in a general distrust of student engagement, these measures cause what experts call a “chilling effect”: students and staff will feel less safe to express themselves when their educational institution closely monitors their activity and shares names of active participants.

In the Netherlands some forms of protest, such as occupations, have even been labeled as illegal by some political parties or prohibited under university house rules. Dutch politicians and administrators have called for severe measures against participants in these forms of protest including expulsion and, in the case of international students, the revocation of visas. According to the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee, blockades and occupations do not fall outside the scope of the right to demonstrate. Actions that disrupt and obstruct are also protected under the right to protest. The attempt to discourage these forms of protest by presenting them as unlawful again produces a chilling effect. In addition, the intervention in these actions has had a negative effect on student safety, painfully visible through the serious injuries sustained by students due to police violence.

Despite the right to protest being protected by both Dutch law and the European Charter of Human Rights, these rights are recurrently broken by administrators, police forces and other actors, posing a serious threat to academic freedom and the (physical) safety of students during protests. In light of these patterns, and their increasing normalisation, ESU stresses the urgent need for consistent safeguarding of the right to protest. Repression of student voices poses serious threats to academic freedom, and freedom of speech, which are fundamental parts of the democratic functioning of European countries, including the Netherlands.

These institutional responses stand in direct contradiction to what Dutch students are taught within their curricula and to the broader academic body of knowledge. Higher education institutions are considered a vital safeguard against democratic backsliding and a cornerstone of European democratic values – yet in this regard, they are falling short.

ESU will explicitly stand behind students who raise their voice through protests and demonstrations. Moreover, ESU will advocate for the protection of academic freedom as a form of expression and actively support efforts to prevent the disengagement and combat repression of student protests and demonstrations.

Therefore, ESU calls for:

• The fundamental right to protest to be protected as part of democratic undemocratic force used by authorities against students and academics.

Reason & Seconders

We’ve had instances of police violence on our campuses with a fully inadequate response from our government

ÖH, ISO